Grants Funding National Minority Organisations in Slovakia (2011–2017). Analysis of the Grant System of the Slovak Government for Cultures of National Minorities

In the period between 2011 and 2017, the Government Office of the Slovak Republic coordinated a grant programme supporting cultures of national minorities. The present paper analyses the above mentioned grant system on the basis of the lists of accepted and rejected project proposals. The paper presents an overview of the grant system, examines the division of applicants and project proposals based on topic, ethnicity and type of applicants, and aims to identify priorities based on which the decisions on funding were made. Based on the available data, the paper also examines the institutional system of national minorities in Slovakia in terms of size, composition, and structure. The results show that the decision-making bodies sought to support as many proposals as possible and they rather decreased the funding amount than the number of organizations to be supported. Also, the paper shows that cultural and publishing projects, smaller ethnic minorities and NGOs were favoured by the decision-makers. The paper emphasises the decisive role of hierarchical umbrella organisations in the institutional systems of smaller ethnic minorities.